Moan, Moan, Moan - 2012

[Lesley Cox]

I think most councils around the country have something similar. We have two such days in Dunedin, one for the junk such as refrigerators, armchairs etc and another for electronic stuff, old computers etc. Unfortunately neither day is extended out into country areas even though we do now have council rubbish collection and recycling.

[Otto Fauser]

Otto,

I'm trying to think where the heck you have a nature strip they could dump on?    We do have occasional waste things like that here in Canberra as well, but it is usually as quietly advertised as possible so that the government doesn't have to pick up as much.  Usually I find out about it after the fact, unfortunately.  

Paul , I have renamed my nature strip just for you : Cyclamen hederifolium strip .

[Paul T]

Otto,

Do you mean down below your place?

[Anthony Darby]

Glorious hot, sunny fantastic day. 5.35 p.m. had to drive number one son to hockey training. Then I find out I have left a ginkgo fruit in the car since Sunday! Boak! Well, that's what the car smelled like!

[annew]

 
How is it that the desirability of galanthus foliage to slugs is directly proportional to their value?

[Paul T]

Anne,

Just one of those great unknown truths that we may or may not know about.  Oh dear, maybe I should enter politics. 

[annew]

You'd make as good a job of it as the current batch..

[angie]

if they have went to the effort of putting it their vehicle why not just take it to the council dump. It's only five minutes from me.


Angie 

Probably because there may be a cost (fee) in taking rubbish to the dump? We have to pay big fees here to take stuff to the council dump and as a result much stuff is thrown off the back of trucks, on the roadside, usually down a bank where it's harder to retrieve. When bags are dumped illegally, council workers go through them now to find an envelope with an address, then prosecute when they can.

Lesley there is no cost at our council dump and its open late and all weekend. There is no excuse for the folks that just dump things. The landowner now has to organise the removal of this waste.
As for looking through the bins for letters this works. I have a story about this. We had two young lads worked for us and one lived two minutes from the local council dump. We had said could you leave half an hour earlier and drop of my black bags. I had missed the bin man. Later on that evening I had a visit from two police officers. Now that alone was shock I thought has Derek been in an accident. They had found the bags and opened them up and had got my address. They didn't even get in their car to drive to me they just walked across the field , thats how close he had dumped the bags. I said to the police I would go and pick up the bags but they said no leave it and get the boys to pick it up. I was horrified but they thought it was funny. They did comment that these boys didn't have much sense. Needless to say the one that threw the bags out of the van never finished his apprenticeship.

Angie

[Lesley Cox]

It costs us $18 to take a small trailer load of rubbish to the local dump! $28 for a 1 tonne truckload! There's no EXCUSE for dumping on the side of the road, but this, surely is at least part of the REASON.

[Anthony Darby]

You'd think it would make financial sense to have the facilities at the local tip free when compared to the cost of tidying up the countryside. Greece seems to be the worst place I've visited for fly-tipping. It's an absolute disgrace! A friend of mine is in Egypt at the moment. The litter at Giza was dreadful. He's enjoying it though, as there are hardly any tourists and a 180 mile journey by public bus to Abu Simbol cost him only £2.50. He's not managed to spend more than £2.00 on a meal yet!

[Lesley Cox]

After having moaned, with some of the Southerners about the non quality of our TV on the "Happy" thread, I don't dare put this on the Edinburgh Show thread where it was going, as an add on to the facebook links. Maggi would shoot me, so here we go, but I'll keep it brief.

My one granddaughter now lives in Australia and will be 20 in a couple of days. She only communicates by Facebook so I thought I'd better get another password and try to contact her. Did that and had a long reply but in what seemed to be a totally new language. Most words were spelt in unrecognisable ways and I know has become ino. I despair of anyone speaking English within another generation. Have been reading in the Listener an article about teacher quality and how the system is failing many students who leave school without literacy and numeracy skills. Any they may have had have flown out the window in the face of texting and Facebook etc. Are being able to read, write and speak properly no longer necessary for finding employment?

[Anthony Darby]

I totally agree Lesley, although I often get things totally wrong. A young person connected to my family work's in a solicitor's office. Here's an example of her Facebook speak: "Had a fabby nite last night- was a great laugh! Hows ur head today mrs? Me an julz r dying, half way home 8 hour drive with a hangover is not a fun time lol! Wait til u see the pics they r so funny, some really nice ones too! Catch up next time im down xxx" I suspect she doesn't type like this when sending out solicitors letters, after all, we have to pay way over the odds for that service?!

[Paul T]

Anthony,

That is a lot more readable than a lot I've seen. 

Lesley,

No, literacy and numeracy are not required any longer it seems.  Teachers in many cases are not allowed to be negative in any way to a child, so they are not allowed to correct spelling as it has a negative influence on their development.    That's what spellchecker and calculators are for.  I tell you, if we ever get a decent solar flare that destroys our electrical systems there is no hope for this world, not just because of our reliance for systems on computers, but because no-one will be able to communicate any more, nor add or subtract anything other than very simple numbers. 

[Anthony Darby]

At least "too" is spelled correctly, but the number of times I see "your lovely" etc. Your lovely what?

[mark smyth]

Some yoofs have no idea about spelling.

I hate the N. Irish plural of you - yous as in use. I'm using it more and more